FINCHforum

My two zebra finches have been very itchy, their feathers look a little ruffled and a bit dirty, and one of them makes a soft clicking sound that doesn't really fit the description of air-sac mites (they are indoor, and I'm not sure how air-sac mites could've infested them). The clicking sounds like he is making it with his beak, and sometimes it's a fast clicking and other times it's slow and doesn't have any particular rhythm such as a clock ticking which people have described for air-sac mites.

They are both eating regularly, and I have vitamins in their water. One has been sleeping oddly in the small cup of green treats (like dried vegetables and such) even though he doesn't fit in it. He bends his head down and sleeps nearly vertically. They both fly from perch to perch as if they were healthy, and they are always singing and they go to sleep regularly and wake up regularly and are quite active. I've been trying to treat them with Pestex for feather lice, and it doesn't seem to be helping yet. Is this air-sac mites and should I treat them differently?

Thanks

I'm not familiar with Pestex - how long have you been treating them. Where abouts are you located? (Sometimes if you fill your profile in with your location - it may help with localized answers.) Can you post a pic of them. How long have you had the finches?
Sorry for all the questions.

I'm in Indiana, and Pestex is just a mite and lice spray I bought off a website about finch health. Sometimes their feathers are ruffled and other times they're healthy-looking. I treated them the first time yesterday, and once again just now. I thought maybe they were bathing in their vitamin water and so the vitamins would dirty-up their feathers when they dried on them (I put a liquid vitamin A in their water). I just put a clean water bird bath in their today, and hopefully that will help wash the mites/lice off as I kill them with the spray. But the clicking noise is what worries me: sometimes it looks like their beak is rapidly clicking together making the noise, as if they were chewing on a seed (and there's no seed in their mouth when they do it).

They act healthy for most of the day, but sometimes ill see them sleep as if they're uncomfortable and sick, and other times they sleep just fine. The most often things I see are stretching their wings, puffing their feathers, and using their beak to chew at an itchy spot.

I would also probably want to treat them with S76, effective against air sac mites, (the clicking sound could mean air sac mites). S76 is well known and a pretty safe treatment, and you can order it online. If you treat as directed, it should be safe to treat your pair, even if they don't have air sac mites... just as a precaution.